We’ve got some lovely gardens in Snowdonia, such as Bodnant and Portmeirion, but for me the walled garden at Maes y Neuadd is the best – it’s good enough to eat!
The 149 items of fruit and veg only just fit onto a sheet of A4.
Each morning, the head gardener reports to the kitchen, with the complete list of produce indicating what’s at its best. Armed with this knowledge, the chef finalises the day’s menu and the harvest begins - eight tonnes a year.
The vegetable garden is not just a culinary feast, but an aesthetic inspiration. What better than an afternoon stroll spotting the gaps from where tonight’s supper was plucked? Maybe some helpful hints and tips from one of the gardeners?
You never know who you might bump into – Sean Connery, Richard Gere, Senator Edward Kennedy and Jackie Onassis have all stayed here.

www.neuadd.com/
Maes-y-Neuadd, Talsarnau, Gwynedd LL47 6YA
+44(0)1766 780200
Google map: bit.ly/lRO6Re

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As well as steam trains the Vale of Ffestiniog offers spectacular wildlife and nature. Sea trout and salmon on the Afon Dwyryd and if you’re lucky you might see an otter. On either side of the valley Atlantic oakwoods or Celtic rainforest, more scarce than tropical rainforests and every bit as special with magnificent lichens, liverworts and slime molds. Redstarts and pied flycatchers arrived a few weeks ago. Right now the woods are blooming with bluebells and wild goats stepping carefully so as not to squash them.

Abandoned slate mines make perfect roosts for many species of bat such as the ‘lesser horseshoes’. ICI's explosives factory, Gwaith Powdwr, in which 17 million grenades were made is now a nature reserve where later this month you can hear the nightjars. Llechwedd Slate Caverns has nesting choughs.

We might have pine martens but are struggling to prove it. Ospreys returned to the area in 2004 and this year’s chicks recently hatched. Up in the mountains ravens and buzzards patrol the skies with the occasional red kite. Moths galore, last summer a holiday maker recorded 180 different species during his weeklong stay. Along the coast you might see bottlenose dolphins, porpoise, grey seals or maybe even a leatherback turtle – some years ago a turtle the size of a mini was washed up on Harlech beach and now sits in the National Museum of Wales.

Forget Galapagos, come to Ffestiniog! This is home to Ivor the Engine and Idris the dragon. What's more we've got a live wolf!
bit.ly/izCBgT

www.voff.co.uk/

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A Londoner from Ireland running a B&B in the heart of Welsh speaking Snowdonia. Warm welcome from former fire fighter Dennis Sullivan with his array of fireman’s axes in reception. ‘They don’t make them like this any more, you know’. Traditional Welsh breakfast served upstairs, from the Aga downstairs, with views over the Vale of Ffestiniog. Across the field the grand house that some say Hitler had earmarked for his Welsh retreat. Instead of giving directions Dennis, with Albert the black Labrador, took me along the lanes and across the fields to the local pub in Maentwrog. Next day we kayaked past Portmeirion. What a host - thanks Dennis.

www.tal-y-bontcountryhouse.co.uk/
Rhyd-y-Sarn, Ffestiniog, Blaenau Ffestiniog, Gwynedd, LL41 4HG
+44(0)1766 762347
Google map: bit.ly/er41FM

www.VoFf.co.uk

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Ten shepherds in a small Snowdonia farmhouse. Since dawn we’ve been gathering sheep off the craggy mountain through heather, bilberry and bracken. Picking our way over blanket bog while buzzards circle above. Breakfast well earned. The fifteen dogs crashed out in the farmyard. Tea, toast and rashers of bacon served to the guests, so polite and proper after all the swearing at their dogs. Mainly Welsh with some words of English at my table, which is in the porch – not enough room for us all to squeeze into the kitchen. Next the shearing and much later the gathering supper. I wouldn’t swap this for The Ritz.

See the gathering at bit.ly/e2ZzsW which takes place at www.voff.co.uk
Google map: bit.ly/gSu138

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Walk past rock cannons and through an incline tunnel then to the top of the Moelwyns. Industrial heritage slowly but surely being reclaimed by nature. Far away from the crowds.

www.voff.co.uk
bit.ly/fXOouf

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Start at Maentwrog church by the stone (maen) thrown by the giant St Twrog to stop the villagers reverting to paganism. Then a brief dip into the archaeology of The Grapes where a stone carved ‘Marcus’, now built into the doorway of the bar, commemorates the centurion’s team building their stretch of wall in the nearby Roman fort. Up the Vale through the Cynfal Gorge to Llan (church) Ffestiniog. The Pengwern, an old drovers pub to re-open early 2011 as a community venture. Down the other side of the valley through the ‘forest of the wolves’ to the old coaching inn, The Oakeley Arms. Along the way: two churches, three pubs and four rivers.

Full description and location details at www.voff.co.uk/pilgrim.html
Google map: bit.ly/g6K8MG

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Snowy Prague, Wenceslas Square and street corner carp vendors. We might enjoy turkey on Christmas Day but Bohemians take carp on Christmas Eve. From early December onwards big tanks of carp take position on busy street corners. Fish scales glistening in the snow are evidence of the festive fishmongers prepping some of the fish. But traditionalists like it fresh. Travelling on the tube, bunched up with fellow commuters, suddenly the carrier bag next to you wriggles with a live carp. I asked Jiří how he kept it fresh – ‘in the bath of course, and when that’s in use, transferred to the basin’.

Any busy street corner in Prague during December.

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Pristine oak woodlands on the side of a mountain with views past Portmeirion to the sea. Wild goats, buzzards and even a howling wolf (living willow). Was the last wolf in Wales slain here? Did Lord Haw-Haw stay here before the war? Catch a steam train from Tan y Bwlch (free parking and cafe) for a 2Km ride up the line to the only railway loop in Britain then it's (mainly) downhill all the way.

Start at Tan y Bwlch station LL41 3AQ
Train timetable at www.festrail.co.uk
www.voff.co.uk/woodland_walk.html
Google map: bit.ly/cgyenu

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